U.S. Repatriates Fugitive Businessman Long Sought by China

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The spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs commented on Friday about the repatriation by the United States of Yang Jinjun, a Chinese businessman accused of corruption.Published OnSept. 18, 2015CreditImage by Associated Press

By Austin Ramzy

Sept. 18, 2015

HONG KONG — A businessman accused of corruption has been returned to China from the United States, where he had been living for the past 14 years, the Chinese authorities said Friday.

The businessman, Yang Jinjun, is the first among 100 people accused of corruption and pursued abroad by China this year to be sent back from the United States, China’s chief anticorruption body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said in a statement.

Mr. Yang’s forced repatriation was made possible “through the close cooperation of Chinese and United States law enforcement and diplomatic departments,” the statement said.

The Chinese state news media showed photos of a handcuffed Mr. Yang walking from an airplane, flanked by two uniformed police officers.

Mr. Yang, a native of the southeastern city of Wenzhou, was wanted by Chinese investigators in connection with a bribery inquiry, and he fled to the United States in 2001. He had been general manager of a company in Wenzhou.

He is the brother of Yang Xiuzhu, a former deputy mayor of Wenzhou who is also sought by the Chinese authorities, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. Ms. Yang has been detained in the United States and is seeking political asylum there, Xinhua reported in June.

Mr. Yang’s return came just days before President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the United States, which begins Tuesday. Beijing has sought American help in its effort to pursue suspects of economic crimes who have fled abroad, and the two countries reached an arrangement in April under which the United States would help track Chinese suspects on American soil and China would take in thousands of its citizens awaiting deportation from the United States.

“Yang Jinjun’s forced repatriation is an important development in China-United States cooperation in anticorruption law enforcement,” Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, said during a regularly scheduled news conference on Friday.

“We appreciate the cooperation of the United States,” he said. The United States has been a leading destination for Chinese fugitives because the two countries do not have an extradition treaty, in part because of American concerns about the lack of due process in China.

The Obama administration warned Beijing in August about the presence of covert Chinese government agents operating in the United States to pressure prominent expatriates — some wanted in China on charges of corruption — to return home.

In April, China issued a list of its top 100 people wanted on suspicion of corruption and who were believed to be overseas, including about 40 in the United States, as part of a campaign called Sky Net. Twelve have been repatriated, the anticorruption body said on Friday.

But it remains unclear if that list represents all of the country’s most-wanted fugitives, or merely those whose cases the Chinese government is comfortable discussing publicly.

China is also demanding the return of Ling Wancheng, a wealthy and well-connected businessman who fled to the United States. Should he seek political asylum, Mr. Ling could become one of the most damaging defectors in the history of the People’s Republic.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Sends a Suspect in Graft Case Back to China. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe